You can use this command before and after to see how the battery consumption change (you need to disconnect sector first) :

grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state

To make this permanent, just add your working command in /etc/rc.local

Example :

modprobe acpi_call
/usr/share/acpi_call/m11xr2.sh off

Nvidia

Not tested yet.

I assume you need to :

Remove all previous Intel driver

Install Nvidia driver :

nvidia and nvidia-utils for the proprietary driver

OR nouveau for the open source driver

Screen

External Display

For Sandy Bridge models (L502x), there is ongoing work in the bumblebee project to enable HDMI output; however, as of 18 November 2011, this is not working. In these models, the HDMI port is connected to the Nvidia card (DGP), while the DisplayPort is connected to the Intel IGP. It is reported that as of now, one can use an external monitor connected to the DisplayPort.